This isn’t a sciencefiction story this is real. Rheinmetall, a German defence company has successfully demonstrated its 50kW laser by shooting down two UAVs travelling more than 100mph. During the trials they also demonstrated the power of the laser by cutting a 15mm steel girder more than a mile away.

Just to give you an idea – if you ever owned a laser pointer, at most that would be 50mW in power. This laser weapon is 10,000,000 times more powerful than a laser pointer!! It also won’t fit into your pocket either and you definately won’t be using it to do a powerpoint presentation.

The weapon utilises radar and optical sensors to track a target and once that target gets into the kill zone, the laser does its job. The laser is demo type but the Rheinmetall confirmed that they will look to make the unit mobile with the possibility of coupling it with a cannon. The laser weapon passed its trials under various weather conditions including snow. As well as shooting down aircarft, the weapon can also destroy mortar rounds before they hit the ground.

I would be very surprised if this weapon doesn’t appear in killstreak on the next Call of Duty game.

CIWS previously posted a video of their trial of bringing down an aircraft with similar power weapon.